OXFORD, Ohio — The University of Cincinnati swimming and diving teams will resume action following an 11-day layoff to compete at the 19th annual Miami University Invitational, Thursday through Saturday, at Corwin Nixon Aquatic Center.

UC swimming and diving head coach Monty Hopkins and his squad will have a second consecutive challenging invitational meet to compete in this weekend in Oxford.

In addition to facing the RedHawks, whose women are ranked third in the first CollegeSwimming.com Mid-Major Division I ranking, the Bearcats will face teams from Dennison, Emory, Marshall (women only), Urbana, Western Kentucky and Wright State. The Emory men’s team is ranked No. 5 and its women are No. 3 in the most recent CollegeSwimming.com NCAA Division III poll.

The three-day meet begins 6 p.m. Thursday with the women’s 800-yard freestyle relay. For Friday and Saturday, preliminary rounds begin at 9 a.m. while the finals start at 6 p.m.

Cincinnati is coming off a three-day meet Nov. 16-18 at the Purdue Invitational in West Lafayette, Ind., where the UC women placed fifth out of seven teams, and the men finished sixth of seven.

Freshman Jessica Piper (St. Petersburg, Fla./St. Petersburg) placed ninth overall and second in the `B' finals of the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:01.27. The nine points earned from Piper was the most by any Bearcat at the Purdue Invite.

Sophomore Awse Ma'aya (Amman, Jordan/The Bolles School) earned the UC men their lone individual points when he placed fourth in the `B' final (12th overall) in the 100-yard backstroke with a mark of 50.44 seconds, which produced five team points.